The Silence of Water
by Nautica Dawn
Summary: Inuzuka Hana, Uchiha Shisui, a bridge, and the clan. /Shana\


_**The Silence of Water**_

* * *

It is a rainy day, but it is monsoon season in the Land of Fire. Konoha, though landlocked, is drenched. The Nakano River is breaking free of her restraints, racing into the streets with a murky delight. Few citizens of the Leaf are out, the warmth and dryness of their homes are far too inviting for them to give up in favor of the biting chill of the March showers.

But the rain is not without company.

She sits on the bridge above the Nakano, her forehead presses painfully against the chipped red paint. She ignores the way the swollen river laps at her feet. She tries to forget the way the rain lashes at her form. Her hair, normally lank and brown, has long been plastered to her skin.

Behind her, on the opposite side of the bridge, sits her only human friend. The rain weighs down his black hair, and she knows that his longer legs have left the mighty Nakano to swallow his feet.

He is restless. She feels the small vibrations in the air around him as he fights the urge to race the floodwaters.

"You didn't bring the dogs."

He breaks the silence so easily, and Hana is slightly jealous. She had considered speaking, if only to calm him into staying, but she could not find the words. He is always running ahead of her, and the fact that he is staying by her for so long is leaving a foreign and warm feeling in her stomach. It is mildly uncomfortable, Hana silently decides, but she does not want it to disappear with the fading daylight.

"I needed to get out," she replies, knowing that this genius son will understand.

"I see," he says, swinging his feet in the rapids that were as fleeting as the boy himself.

He really does understand, and that is part of why Hana wishes he would stop running and stay with her. He is like light, always there but never really there at all. He was the one thing that she and her dogs couldn't catch.

"You don't have your shadow?" she barely breathes.

Still, he hears her voice through the orchestra that is the storm.

"Itachi had a mission. He won't be back for another month," he says grimly. Hana feels the restlessness fade, and she wonders at the change in dynamics in his relationship with the misled youth.

"How is he doing?" she asks boldly.

Shisui sighs heavily, "Bad. I've been ordered to keep an eye on him. They seem to think that he's going to turn on the clan."

"Would that really be a bad thing?"

He does not reply. She does not believe that he can.

She can feel the rain trace the crimson markings on her cheeks. They are the symbols of her clan, of her blood. They are the invisible chains that bind her to the humans and the dogs. She thinks that they are a terrible burden, but that the fan on his back is worse in so many ways. His increasing disquiet towards their rules and treatment of the younger prodigy is more than enough proof.

She closes her eyes, listening to the March symphony of rain and floods, "Shisui, have you ever thought of jumping?"

It is something that she herself had considered on many occasions. What would it be like to jump from the bridge and let the Nakano take her? Would the clan save her, or would they leave her to her decision?

Would Shisui save her?

There is no reaction from the typically energetic Uchiha. Simply a monotone, "Yes."

Hana is not surprised. She knows Uchiha Shisui, and she knows that he is more complex than the young Itachi could ever be. Shisui is cheerful, and every cheerful shinobi has grotesque skeletons chained to them. Hana knows because she has a few of her own.

"So have I," she admits without reservation. There have never been secrets between the two, and something akin to a smile can be heard in her admission.

She is sitting in the rain on one side of a shaky bridge with her feet in the floodwaters. On the other side is a very gloomy Uchiha Shisui. She is soaked to the very depths of her spinal cord. Her lips are turning a lovely shade of blue as she speaks of suicidal thoughts.

And she is as close to smiling as she can ever truly be.

"But why?" he asks, his voice coming to life in the dead of a rainy Konoha, "We live in the greatest village in the world. We have everything we could ever need. We have food in our stomachs and a warm home to go back to. Why should we be considering leaving when we have so much?"

She sighs, "Just because we have everything we need does not mean that we have everything we want."

"I know," he concedes quietly, "And I think that's the worst thing about it. Why are humans so greedy?"

She does not, cannot, answer him. It is a question that she has asked herself many a time, and no answer has ever presented itself to her. There is only one possibility, and it did not give a direct reply to the question.

"It's not the village. It's the clan."

The words unsaid, the ones of dark threats and brutal slurs, were whispered cruelly with the alluring voice of the lethally beautiful Nakano.

The clan is corrupt. Whether Inuzuka or Uchiha, it is all rotten. The clan stole childhoods and specialized in killing innocence. They created monsters without remorse. When one of their precious little monsters got out of hand, or began questioning the clan, they destroyed their prized creation without a hint of sorrow. Grief and other emotions were the only evil to the clan. Everything else was about the human vice of greed.

"The clan is a good reason," he murmurs, his onyx eyes turning up to the rolling sky as he leans back, "To get away from it all."

"So jump," she challenges glumly.

"Ladies first," he shoots back dolefully.

She snorts, "I don't want to be like the White Fang."

She feels Shisui shake his head, "Hatake-san was different. The city turned against him."

"And the clan has turned against us."

"They say he took the coward's way out," he sounds almost as if he is merely stating a fact, but she can here the silent musing in his soft tenor voice, the one that reminded her of warm fleece wrapped around her on a snowy day.

"How can escaping the torment be considered a coward's choice?" she whispers, staring at the volatile clouds of blended blues, blacks, greys, and whites. It's a beautiful sight to behold, she decides, but it is too much of a reminder of the shades of grey that make up her life, "Is getting away from it all really what a coward would do? Or is it something that an intelligent person would do?"

Once again, Shisui cannot answer her. Instead, he murmurs softly, "Would you really jump, Hana?"

"Yes, but I'm not brave enough."

"Would you do it if I were with you?"

She almost smiles, "Only if you jump too."

He laughs without humor, "Agreed."

Hana realizes that they truly are cowards. They will complain and talk about escaping the clan with only the silent Nakano to hear them. The river takes all and gives nothing, so their secrets will always be secrets. The Nakano will listen to all, but she never speaks. She is the greatest shinobi that Hana can think of, and she is not even human.

So they sit on opposing sides of the bridge, listening to the silent symphony of water and speaking of ideas that will always be hollow.

A month later, Inuzuka Hana hears of Uchiha Shisui's apparent suicide. The bridge is silent when she makes her pilgrimage on the disgustingly sunny day, and the silent water refuses to give her the answers that she seeks. The mighty Nakano refuses to remind her of what she has lost, of what the water has claimed.

Hana is the only one to believe that Shisui's suicide is genuine. Itachi may have helped, but it would have been at the fleet-footed shinobi's request.

She is not sad, as she tells the placid Nakano, that Shisui is gone.

She is angry that he didn't take her with him.

* * *

A/N: Rainy weather is perfect for angst. I had a lot of fun writing this, strangely enough. I've always been interested in the character of Uchiha Shisui, but I've never had a real reason to write about him before. And then, I discovered Inuzuka Hana. I know she's normally paired off with Itachi, but as a diehard ItaSaku fan, it couldn't happen in my mind. This is also my first attempt at a present tense story, and I quite like it.

As usual, I do not own Naruto. Kishimoto-sensei does. If I did, Shisui and Itachi would still be alive and Sasuke would not be so messed up in the head. Oh, and Madara would be very dead.

Thank you, always, to my wonderful beta, **Banira**

_Reviews are the fountain of youth._

_Hikari Adams_


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